In a material producing company (for example, a steel manufacturer), a given process is performed on a common starting material, and then various basic materials are produced out of the processed raw material in many cases.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a relation among costs, a sales structure, and corresponding departments in a steel manufacturer (iron and steel industry). As shown in FIG. 1, in the case of the steel manufacturer, first of all, pig iron is produced from iron ore and coal as main starting materials, and steel is subsequently produced. By performing various processes on the steel, hot-rolled steel products, cold-rolled steel products, surface-treated steel products, electrical steel, steel plate, steel pipe, and further, shaped steel etc., are produced. Due to such a production form, organization in the company includes an ironmaking department, a steelmaking department, a hot rolling department, a cold rolling department, a coated products department, an electrical steel department, a plate rolling department, a pipe department, and further, a shape rolling department, etc., corresponding to manufacturing equipment and manufacturing processes.
This organization form is convenient for manufacturing management, but the organization is not necessarily appropriate to costs management and sales management by each steel product type. That is, in an ironmaking and a steelmaking process, which are common processes, only costs are generated, but in a subsequent hot rolling process, etc., sales for hot-rolled steel and the like as well as costs for the hot rolling process are generated. Furthermore, in view of consideration on total manufacturing costs for each product, the costs for the previous processes should be sorted to be accumulated. For example, in the production of coated products, partial costs for the ironmaking process, the steelmaking process, the hot rolling process, and the cold rolling process and costs for a surface processing process are involved.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 09-305663 discloses a profit planning calculation method with which in such a steel manufacturer, irrespective of increase in product classification or complexity in marketing route from manufacturing to sales, in addition to forecast on profits obtained from product manufacturing and sales, improvement study for enlarging the profit can be more easily performed.
To the contrary, in a company of a product conclusive type (for example, an electronics manufacturer), starting materials differ on each product, so it is possible to divide a flow from the starting materials to the final product by each product. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a relation among costs, a sales structure, and corresponding departments in an electronics manufacturer. As shown in FIG. 2, in the case of the electronics manufacturer, it is possible to adopt a profit center approach in terms of appropriate product grouping, and by using such a organization form, profit-and-loss management can be performed by each product type.